Disquiet over delay in appointment of Raw Materials Council’s CEO

Failure by the Federal Government to fill the vacant position of Director General/Chief Executive Officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) is causing disquiet.

While some unions are accusing the immediate past DG/CEO of the agency, Prof Hussaini Ibrahim of refusing to vacate office despite the expiration of his tenure on April 7, 2024, he insisted that he had since relinquished his position and handed over to the most senior administrative officer in the agency.

The Guardian reports that while Ibrahim served his first term in office from April 7, 2014, to April 7, 2019, he was reappointed in 2019 for a second and final five-year term that since expired on April 7, 2024.

It was further gathered that unions had threatened fire and brimstone over the failure to appoint his successor.

In a petition by the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), and sent to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, the union called on Ibrahim to hand over to the most senior administrative officer at the agency and vacate office immediately.

It threatened to picket the agency and mobilise its members to embark on strike if the illegality continued.

Signed by ASURI Secretary General, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, the petition was dated April 16, 2024, with reference number ASN/SGF/RMRDC/0424/01.

According to Ndubuaku, the refusal of the RMRDC DG to hand over and vacate office violates Section 2.1.2 (d) (ii) of Conditions of Service for Federal Research Agencies, Institutes and Colleges (COS 2019) as well as the circular by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) dated December 2024.

The petition was titled: “Reporting the flagrant abuse of public service procedure by Prof. Husaini Ibrahim, whose second and final tenure as Director General/Chief Executive Officer of Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) has expired but has refused to vacate office in compliance with extant regulations’.

The petition read: “We have it on good account that rather than hand over and vacate office, Prof Ibrahim merely locked up the office of the DG at the headquarters of RMRDC at Maitama and relocated to the outstation of the council located within the premises of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) along the Musa Yar’Adua Expressway at Lugbe, from where he continues to function as DG, authorising payments and performing other executive functions.”

But in his reaction, the Director of Corporate Services, RMRDC, Chukwuma Ngaha, debunked the allegations, insisting that the DG had since resigned.